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Bangor Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Tungsten
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Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Commodities
  6. Materials information
  7. Mineral occurrence model information
  8. Nearby scientific data
  9. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  10. Mining district
  11. Links to other databases
  12. Bibliographic references
  13. General comments
  14. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10308944
MRDS ID A012890
Record type Site
Current site name Bangor Creek
Related records 10002041, 10160483

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.46909, 64.68908 (WGS84)
Relative position Bangor Creek is an east-flowing tributary to Snake River; their confluence is about 1.2 miles due west of the Snake River road. About 1.4 miles of Bangor Creek have been placer mined, from an elevation of about 175 feet at the edge of the Snake River flood plain upstream to an elevation of about 300 feet. The map location is at the approximate midpoint of the mined part of Bangor Creek in the southwest corner of section 22, T. 9 S., R. 34 W., Kateel River Meridian. It is included in locality 92 of Cobb (1972 [MF 463], 1978 [OFR 78-93]).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Nome C-1(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Solomon NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Nome(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Nome(hydrologic unit)

Norton Sound(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Sitnasuak Native Corporation(ANCSA Village)

ANCSA Village NTVPIC(Type of land area)

NTVPIC(Federal land areas administered by NTVPIC)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Secondary
Tungsten Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Hematite Ore
Scheelite Ore

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 119
USGS model code 39a
Deposit model name Placer Au-PGE
Mark3 model number 54

Nearby scientific data

(1) -165.46909, 64.68908
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Bangor Creek was placer mined for about 1,500 feet above its confluence with Butterfield Creek and for more than a mile below the confluence. Mining probably began in Bangor Creek as early as 1906 (Brooks, 1911) and continued to 1914 when a 3.5 foot bucket line dredge was built (Eakin, 1915 [B 622-I, p. 367]). The dredge had a design capacity of 2,000 cubic yards of material per day and reportedly dug down for about 18 feet. Dredge tailings on Bangor Creek contain abundant large cobbles and small boulders of quartz. Before the dredge was constructed, most of the mining was near the confluence of Butterfield Creek. In this area, the grade of the placer was reported to be about 0.12 ounce of gold per cubic yard in a deposit about 14 feet deep. Most of the gold reportedly was fine-grained but some nuggets weighed about 0.75 ounce. Hematite and scheelite were present; some scheelite occurred in pieces weighing one-half pound (Moffit, 1913). Scheelite was also reported by Coats (1944) and Thorne and others (1948). Potential lode sources for the gold and scheelite in Bangor Creek include the mineralized zone on the southeast flank of Butterfield Creek (NM191), possibly the Twin Mountain zone (NM186), and the Jarosa Ridge prospect (NM193). Bangor Creek cuts through rocks tentatively correlated with the Solomon Schist which forms the core of the Twin Mountain anticline (Bundtzen and others, 1994).
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Bangor Creek was worked by surface or by shallow underground methods from at least 1910 until 1914, when a bucketline dredge was erected on the creek. The grade of the placer reported in Moffit (1913) was 0.12 ounce of gold per cubic yard. The main period of mining apparently was from 1914 until 1918 (Mertie, 1918 [B 622-I, p. 425-449]); Cathcart, 1920). The dredge made at least two parallel passes. The lower limit of pay was just above the point where Bangor Creek enters the Snake River plain.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Moffit, 1913

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Alluvial placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 10-JUL-00 Hawley, C.C. and Hudson, Travis L. Hawley Resource Group

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

Maps centered on this site

Authoritative Alaska resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.